A process which involves multiple entities can be difficult to manage and coordinate, especially if there are multiple documents that are to be passed between parties during the course of the process. This is the case with the construction and building industry. The planning which is required prior and during the construction of a modem building is very labor intensive where segments of which may be repeated several times during the process.
In the past, it was common in development projects to identify a list of development tasks to be performed for the entire development project and to determine the number of days each task requires for completion and the order of execution of each task. These construction tasks, including overall areas of land designs, plans, permits, etc. can be performed by a contractor, a development company's employees, sub-contractors which have sub-contracted for a specific task such as is required for rough plumbing or rough electrical work, or obtaining inspector's approval for tasks to be performed such as pouring a building slab, etc. The ordering of trusses might be done at an early stage of the construction job with the delivery of the trusses and lumber package scheduled for a day and time to start the framing of a building. Currently, in many instances, charts are made which use various types of bar charts where some bars which may indicate the number of days required to perform each task. The bars on the charts sometimes overlap and give an indication of the total number of days required for completion of the development project. These charts have limitations in that a new chart is required every time there are delays in any one of the selected tasks to be performed as a result of weather or having the subcontractors available at the proper time for the contract.
Today, almost all information about projects is generated with software tools. However, most of the commonly used tools work only in a particular domain or discipline and function only at one level of detail. Furthermore, the two-dimensional representation of three-dimensional design information and the one-dimensional representation of bar charts of four dimensional (3D plus time) schedule information make it impossible to communicate the scope and timeline of a project at all levels of detail to all affected persons in a clear manner. In addition, today's single user tools do not support the quick generation of design alternatives in group settings. It is often difficult for Architecture, Engineering and Construction professionals to easily access project data stored in discipline specific tools because there are no industry wide standards for most types of project data.
In recent years, several electronic visualization tools have become available such as 3D CAD, 4D CAD, and virtual reality. These tools communicate a project design and schedule more effectively than 2D drawings and bar chart schedules, but most of these tools are purely visualization tools. In other words, a project team can view the information from various vantage points and even fly or walk through it, but the team cannot interact with the 3D and 4D visualizations to collaboratively explore design alternatives and resolve design issues rapidly.
What is currently needed are tools that work at several levels of detail, that support interaction with visual models in a group setting, and that give users and other software tools easy access to project data in a commonly understood format for the fast paced work on design and construction projects.